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Durham Region enlists residents to catch water thieves wet-handed

There’s something in the water in Durham Region that appears to be prompting thieves to steal it by the thousands of litres from fire hydrants across the region.

Durham issued a plea Wednesday for residents to report the hydrant heists that are draining the public purse and prompting a wave of concern about public safety.

Trucking companies and private citizens are wrenching open the hydrants and ducking big water bills by hooking up industrial hoses and pilfering large volumes of water, said Jim Cunningham, with the Durham’s environmental services division.

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The stolen water is used for everything from watering new sod, to washing parking lots, to refilling private swimming pools.

Durham is asking citizens to snitch when they see a theft in progress, or better yet, snap a photo catching the thieves wet-handed.

“We’ve had calls in the middle of the night and the middle of the afternoon,” said Cunningham, of citizens reporting through a region hotline.

Three years ago, stealing had become such a problem that Durham, which includes Oshawa, Ajax, Pickering and Whitby, launched a program to prosecute water-lifters.

In 2011 and 2012, it laid 12 charges and won 10 convictions, the consequences ranging from $1,000 to $2,000 total fines.

The measures were necessary for several reasons, including public safety, Cunningham said.

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Most hydrants in Canada are dry barrel, meaning the vertical space between the water source and the top of the hydrant is meant to be kept dry to avoid freezing.

When a hydrant is used and then shut off, that space, called the barrel, can be left filled with water. As temperatures drop, municipal workers drain the excess water in hydrants they know have been used.

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In Durham, used hydrants are tracked through a permit system, which allows licensed water haulers to pay to access hydrant water.

But if the city isn’t aware that water has been drawn from a hydrant, workers won’t know to remove excess water before the winter, causing freezing or cracking, Cunningham said.

“There’s been a fire situation (when) the fire departments open the hydrant, and nothing comes out because the hydrant is full and frozen,” he said. “We have to move the fire equipment to another hydrant in order to get water.”

There’s also concern about “back-siphoning,” which happens when someone improperly shuts off the hydrant, accidentally sucking into the drinking system water from whatever was being filled.

“So if they’re filling up a pool that has dirty water in it … they could suck that back into our distribution system,” Cunningham said. “Somebody down the line is going to be drinking that water.”

Filling a private pool can cost anywhere from $50 to $200 or more, depending on the size of the pool and the municipal water rates.

Floating the bill to the municipality, of course, then causes a drain on the city’s resources. Durham couldn’t provide an estimate of how much water theft costs the region each year, but officials said the “thousands of litres” stolen increase overall costs, which in turn are passed on to customers.

Though Durham has been a leader in prosecuting water thieves, the problem is far from unusual.

Over the past decade, city councils in Vaughan, Brantford, Ottawa, Kitchener, Edmonton, and Rigeau, Que., have all discussed how to cut down on hydrant theft.

In Paisley, Ont., in 2006, the chief and deputy chief of the volunteer fire department resigned after allegations arose that firefighters had stolen water from hydrants to fill their pools and wash their cars. The chief had investigated the allegations and found no basis, but felt the department still did not have the support of town council.

Toronto spokesperson Ellen Leesti said the city faces similar theft issues and has bylaws regulating hydrant use.

The amount of water that is lost to theft can’t be precisely determined, “but is believed to be relatively low,” she said in an email.

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